Berkeley Beats Stanford at Quidditch

All the old rivalries were there: Berkeley v. Stanford; left v. right; reality v. fiction. But then there were some things they all had in common, like the fact that their brooms weren’t airborne or that they all wanted to capture that annoying Snitch—in this case a tennis ball suspended in a tube sock, and hanging from the waist of a runner dressed in gold leggings and a neon yellow shirt. Who wouldn’t want a piece of that. So they stuck their brooms between their legs and they were off. Bludgers bludgeoned, or at least they tried to discombobulate their rivals by throwing semi-deflated volleyballs at them. Quafflers quaffled as they tried to get the balls through opposing hoops on either side of the field. Wikipedians wondered whether it was time to revise the current article, which calls quidditch a “fictional sport.” At this tournament, it was very real.

In the end Berkelyndor won, bringing great shame to Stanfytherin. Seeker Donovan McNiff spotted the tube sock-encased snitch and successfully groped it, er, grabbed it. Wands were raised, pumpkin juice was drunk, and all the Muggles cheered.

This Sunday’s game coincided with the mugglish Quidditch World Cup event in New York City (and they think Californians are strange …). And somewhere in a dank, dungeon-like dorm room, someone sent another owl to the IOCC, wondering when Quidditch would finally take its place among the great Olympic events. After all, they let beach volleyball in.Read More at The Mercury News.